Ebola Virus Crisis Worsens for Lack of Global Help
Nations With Resources Have Offered Only a Trickle of Aid
By Drew Hinshaw in Monrovia, Liberia, and
Betsy McKay in Atlanta
WSJ.com
Aug. 29, 2014
Kadiatu Barry was dying in her home in Monrovia, Liberia, with her daughter nearby as a local aid worker called 4455 for the country’s Ebola hotline.
Five days later, Ms. Barry’s ride arrived: a makeshift coroner’s truck. Her final days and fate are emblematic of why West Africa’s Ebola crisis is forcing a major reconsideration of how the world handles public-health emergencies.
Eight months after the deadly epidemic began in a forested corner of Guinea, there still aren’t enough doctors, nurses, and epidemiologists to keep it from spinning out of control. The World Health Organization said Thursday that more than 40% of the 3,069 cases reported since the outbreak began in December 2013 have occurred in the past 21 days. At least 1,552 people have died. The WHO says more than 20,000 people could be infected before the outbreak can be brought under control.
The rapid expansion of the Ebola epidemic sends a shrill wake-up call to the global health community and the governments that often provide aid in crises—because so far the nations with the funds and medical resources to help deal with this scourge have offered only a trickle of aid. The lackluster response has compounded the pain and suffering the countries and their people are going through.
“Ebola is moving at the speed of sound and the aid organizations are moving at the speed of a snail,” said James DorborJallah, the national coordinator of Liberia’s Ebola Task Force. He pulled out a piece of notebook paper labeled “BLEAK!!”
It was the government’s forecast of the monthly death toll. “Hundreds now,” he said. “By October, we’re talking about thousands.”
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